If you frequently browse e-books, you'll know that managing your library well makes all the difference. Calibre has earned its place as the benchmark software to organize, convert, and enjoy your ebooks comfortably on your computer, and its version 8.10 comes with useful improvements that you should know about.
We are facing a project free and open source which is frequently updated, consumes few resources and is very easy to configure. Calibre 8.10 strengthens the viewfinder, device management, and fixes bugs recently detected, all without losing its essence: making your life easier with your digital books.
What's new in Calibre 8.10
Calibre, created in 2006 by Kovid Goyal, maintains an agile development pace with constant improvements. Edition 8.10 introduces practical functions in the interface and in connecting to devices, as well as fixes that improve day-to-day reliability.
Among the notable changes in this version, you'll find improvements in customization and usability of the book list. You can now define the tooltips that appear in each column using templates. From the main panel: right-click on a column header and choose the option to pin the information template.
- Customizable tooltips per column in the book view using templates accessible by right-clicking on the header.
- Improvements to the MTP driver: You can set specific destinations for each audiobook format when sending content to compatible devices.
- Search in Preferences > Keyboard both by action name and shortcut, to quickly locate and adjust shortcuts.
- Solution to incorrect placement of APNX files when sending books to subfolders within the root of a device.
- Fix for changing viewer voices when the read-aloud engine is set to “Automatically select”.
- Correction in Markdown output to avoid problems that appeared in the previous version.
The team recommends updating as soon as possible to enjoy these improvements. The full list of changes is maintained publicly And if you're interested in reviewing past milestones, you can also take a look at what the 8.0 branch introduced.
Download, installation and first steps
Download Calibre directly from its official website; there's no cost and the installer isn't cumbersome. The app works on Windows 10 (version 1809) and later, as well as macOS and Linux, and its performance is smooth even on modest computers.
After installation, the wizard guides you through creating your first library and choosing a folder where your books will be stored. You can add titles from the corresponding button at the top And, if you use physical readers, configure a device to send your ebooks there in one click, automatically converting them if necessary.
Beyond the registration of books, Calibre allows you to edit metadata, change covers, read with its integrated viewer and convert between formats With a very powerful engine. Everything is designed to help you get the most out of your digital collection, without any technical complications.
If you're working with Windows, you'll find the viewer in the Start menu; on macOS you can pin it to the Dock to open it whenever you want and, on Linux, it is possible to start it from the desktop menus or with the command ebook-viewer. There is also previous versions available for those who need an older edition and the option to contribute financially to support development if you wish.
Manage your collection and devices like a pro
Calibre is not just a reader; It is a comprehensive solution to organize, convert and synchronize your ebooks with any popular reader, including Kindle or iPad. Its strength lies in combining many tasks in one place and making them easy.
- Complete ebook viewer with support for table of contents, tags, CSS, text search, and even printing.
- Flexible organization by author, title, date added, date published, size, rating, and more.
- Metadata and covers downloadable items from the Internet by title, author, or ISBN; add tags and notes to better catalog your collection.
- Simple and advanced search in the library to locate books instantly.
- Multiple Format Support: CBZ, CBR, CBC, EPUB, FB2, HTML, LIT, LRF, MOBI, ODT, PDF, PRC**, PDB, PML, RB, RTF, TCR and TXT.
- Powerful conversion with font rescaling and internal structure detection/creation.
- Online newspaper subscriptions and RSS feeds, converting news to your reader's format.
- Export from parts of your library to disk with a well-organized folder structure.
- Content server to access your books from a browser, wherever you are.
If you've ever encountered compatibility issues between a format and your reader, Calibre shines here: converts to the appropriate format so that synchronization is a piece of cake, minimizing friction with less common readers.
And with 8.10 there's a bonus for those who use audiobooks: The MTP driver allows you to define different destinations by format when you transfer content, giving you finer control over how everything is arranged on your device.
The eBook viewer: modes, annotations, reading aloud, and more
The Calibre viewer can open most common formats and is highly configurable. To read any book in your library, select it, and press the “Show” button. You can also launch the viewer from the Start menu (Windows), pin it to the Dock (macOS), or open it on Linux with the desktop launcher or the command prompt. ebook-viewer.
Turning pages is easy and supports several methods: click on the left or right margins, keys such as the space bar, Page Down/Page Up, Enter, Backspace, and arrow keys. On touchscreens, simply tap the text or swipe sideways.
To access the viewfinder controls, you can right-click on the text, use the Esc key or the Menu key; on touch devices, tap the top third of the screen. The viewer offers two reading modes: "paginated," similar to a physical book, and "continuous," similar to a web flow. You can switch between them in Preferences > Page Layout or with Ctrl+M.
Calibre remembers where you left off if you half-close the viewfinder, and it also allows you to create bookmarks with the specific button or with Ctrl+BIn EPUB, bookmarks are saved within the file itself, so if you share it, the other person will see your bookmarks. If you prefer, you can disable this feature in the Viewer Preferences > Miscellaneous.
When the book includes an index, The “Index” button displays the list of sections to quickly jump to the section you're interested in. And since ebooks don't have "absolute" pages like paper books, there's "Go To > Location" to navigate to exact positions; you can also copy a calibre:// URL from your current location to your clipboard.
If you navigate internal links (such as endnotes), use the Back and Forward buttons from the viewfinder to navigate like a browser. You also have a useful Reference Mode that numbers each paragraph by section and paragraph; you can enter this number in "Go to..." to land on a specific spot.
The annotations are very neat: select text and press the button Highlighting to mark passages, add notes, and choose color. In touch, tap and hold a word; adjust the selection with the handles, scroll by dragging them to the edge, or zoom in with Shift + click (or right click) to even span multiple pages.
The “Highlights” panel lists all your highlights by chapter. You can also explore annotations throughout the library. Right-click on “Show” and “Browse Annotations.” If you use the Calibre Content Server browser viewer, you can synchronize annotations between the two by adding the server username in Preferences > Miscellaneous; for anonymous users, use the special value “*.”
The viewer can read aloud by clicking “Read aloud.” The current word or sentence is highlighted as the speech progresses.Voice can be generated using the Piper neural engine or the system's TTS services; you can change the engine and voice using the gear icon that appears when active.
The search is very powerful (Ctrl+F) and offers several modes. "Contains" It is the basic one: it ignores spaces, accents and punctuation marks unless you check “Case sensitive”. “Complete words” finds exact terms (same behavior regarding accents if you do not check the box). “Close words” Finds complete words within a distance measured in characters (e.g., “super gauge” up to 60 by default; add a number to the end to extend, such as 120). And “Regular expression” interprets the pattern as regex for advanced searches.
There is a direct keyboard mode to follow links Without a mouse: Press Alt+F and you'll see numbers/letters above the visible links; type the appropriate number to open them or Esc to cancel. If there are more than 35 links, some use two characters; correct them with Backspace if you make a mistake.
The presentation is tailored to the flight: Ctrl + “+” or “-” changes the sizeCtrl+0 restores it. Colors in Preferences > Colors; Pages per Screen and margins in Page Layout; customizable headers and footers with time remaining, current chapter, or position. In Preferences > Styles, you can set a background image and a global style sheet for all books.
For the more technical: The viewer adds the CSS class “is-calibre-viewer” to the root element and applies in body classes like calibre-viewer-dark-colors, calibre-viewer-light-colors, calibre-viewer-paginated, calibre-viewer-scrolling y calibre-footnote-container. Additionally, it defines CSS variables such as --calibre-viewer-background-color, --calibre-viewer-foreground-color and, if applicable, --calibre-viewer-link-color. If a book contains wide content (tables or labels) <pre>), switch to continuous mode with Ctrl+M, or add CSS in Styles to force line breaking in <pre>.
You can also Check the meaning of words with a double click or long tap and the query button, select text/images and copy them to the clipboard, or open a full-size image with a double click (or “View Image” from the right button).
In books corresponding to the printed edition, The viewer allows you to jump to a page on the paper from “Go to” and display, if you want, the printed page number in headers or footers.
As with the rest of Calibre, viewer shortcuts are customized in your preferences. By default, you have these shortcuts (summarized and grouped):
- Navigating the book: Home / Ctrl+Up Arrow / Ctrl+Left Arrow to go to the beginning of the current file; Ctrl+Home to go to the beginning of the workbook; End / Ctrl+Down Arrow / Ctrl+Right Arrow to go to the end of the file; Ctrl+End to go to the end of the workbook.
- Displacement: Up/down arrows to scroll back/forward (smoothly in continuous mode and by page count); Left/right arrows to scroll slowly in continuous mode or one page in paging; Page Up or Shift+Spacebar to scroll back; Page Down or Spacebar to scroll forward.
- Sections and history: Ctrl+Page Up previous section; Ctrl+Page Down next section; Alt+Left Arrow Back; Alt+Right Arrow Forward.
- Panels and modes: Ctrl+T toggle index; Ctrl+S to activate reading aloud; Alt+P to save settings, create and activate profiles; Alt+F to follow keyboard shortcuts; Ctrl+C to copy to clipboard; Alt+C to copy current location; Ctrl+Shift+C to copy the location as a URL calibre://.
- Search: “/”, Ctrl+F or Cmd+F to start; F3 or Enter to search next; Shift+F3 or Shift+Enter to search previous.
- size and pages: Ctrl+Plus (or Meta+Plus) to increase font; Ctrl+Minus (or Meta+Minus) to decrease font; Ctrl+0 to restore size; Ctrl+] to increase pages per screen; Ctrl+[ to decrease font; Ctrl+Alt+C to automate pages per screen.
- Screen and layout: F11 or Ctrl+Shift+F for full screen; Ctrl+M toggle pagination/continuous; Ctrl+W toggle scroll bar.
- Reference and bookmarks: Ctrl+X toggle Reference Mode; Ctrl+B show/hide bookmarks; Ctrl+Alt+B new bookmark.
- Metadata and reloading: Ctrl+N or Ctrl+E displays the book's metadata; Ctrl+Alt+F5 or Ctrl+Alt+R reloads the book.
- Text selectionCtrl+Shift+Right/Left Arrow to zoom in/out by word; Shift+Arrow to wrap by character or line; Shift+Home/End to extend to the beginning/end of a line; Ctrl+A to select all; Ctrl+Shift+Down/Up Arrow to move forward/backward by paragraph.
- Controls and preferences: Esc or Menu key to display controls; Ctrl+Comma, Ctrl+Esc, Meta+Esc, or Meta+Comma to open viewer preferences.
- Go to automatic scrolling: Ctrl+G, ; or : to go to a location; Ctrl+Spacebar to toggle auto-scrolling; Alt+Up/Down Arrow to adjust its speed.
- ToolsCtrl+I to show/hide inspector; Ctrl+L to open Word query pane; Ctrl+Q (Cmd+Q on macOS) to exit; Ctrl+P to print to PDF; Ctrl+F11 toggle toolbar; Ctrl+H to open Highlights pane; Ctrl+D to open Edit This Workbook.
With this arsenal, you can adapt the viewfinder to your liking and read comfortably even technical literature with complex formats.
Compare books and versions with the diff tool
Calibre includes a built-in utility for Compare versions of the same book in EPUB and AZW3 formatsIt's perfect for seeing what's changed after editing or converting. You can launch it from "Edit eBooks" with File > Compare with another book, or from the "Book Details" panel.
When you convert an EPUB to itself, The original file is saved as ORIGINAL_EPUB. In “Book Details,” right-click on that entry and choose “Compare to EPUB Format.” The comparison view opens, showing the original on the left and the current one on the right (if you open it from the editor, the one you’re editing appears on the right).
Side-by-side visualization shows only what changes with a few lines of context around it. Added text appears in green, deleted text in red, and modified text in blue.Line numbers help you navigate, and if you opened the tool from the editor, you can double-click in the right pane to jump to that line in the editor.
There is an options button for “Beautify files before comparing,” which usually results in cleaner, easier-to-follow diffs, although keep in mind that it can sometimes jeopardize the validity of problematic code. You can also decide how many lines of context you want to see. The search bar lets you locate text in the diffs and choose whether to search in the left or right panel.
Common ways of launching the comparison: Open two files of the same format and compare them from the editor; compare ORIGINAL_FMT to FMT after a conversion; or, while editing, use the “Milestones” feature (View > Milestones) to save statuses and facing a milestone with the current state with the “Compare” button.
This whole set of options means that, whether you're tweaking CSS or fixing chapters, you can detect changes accurately, validate the result of a conversion and keep track of your edits.
Beyond the new, it is worth remembering that Calibre continues to publish a detailed changelog and keeps older editions available for anyone who needs them. With such an active ecosystem and such a capable viewer, managing, converting, and reading your ebooks becomes much easier.